A former director at a £20,000-a-year Belgravia girls school is banned from working in schools for life after lying about his 2:2 degree.

Simon Dodd, 39, faked a higher degree classification and lied about his previous employment to win a senior position at Francis Holland School.

A teacher misconduct panel heard how the former Director of Creative Enterprises was caught out during a chance conversation between the head teacher of Francis Holland and an ex-colleague of Mr Dodd.

On his CV, Dodd claimed he worked for fee-paying Sir William Perkins's all-girls School, in Chertsey, Surrey, from September 2009 to August 2012, when in fact he worked for Ibstock Place School in Roehampton during that period.

Read More

News from our schools

He also claimed that he obtained a 2:1 degree by showing a "falsified degree certificate" when his result was actually a 2:2.

Dawn Dandy, who made the decision to ban Dodd on behalf of the Secretary of State, said in a report: "A prohibition order is both proportionate and necessary in order to protect the public interest deliberate behaviour which undermines pupils, the profession, the school and colleagues.

"The panel has also commented that Mr Dodd did not fully understand 'the potential impact of his conduct upon public perception of the profession'.

"In my judgement, the lack of full insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this risks the integrity of the teaching profession being called into question."

Francis Holland School in Belgravia (Image: Google Maps)

Dodd joined Francis Holland School, which charges £6,695 a term for Years 5 -13, on January 1 2017, but was found out by chance two months later.

He admitted omitting a period of previous employment and submitting a falsified degree certificate in November 2017.

Read More

The teacher misconduct panel report, published on February 16 2018, said: "He carried out these acts knowingly and deliberately with the intention of deceiving Francis Holland School, for the purpose of having a better prospect of obtaining a senior position there and for financial betterment.

"This deception continued over a period of eight months despite Mr Dodd describing in evidence that there had been every opportunity for him to disclose the truth."

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.